Parents of children starting primary school in Ealing in September 2011 will be among the first to use a new pan-London admissions system. The ‘one-stop’ system has been used for high school admissions since 2005 and will now also be used for all primary places.

Under the new scheme, parents will be required to submit one application to Ealing Council, even if they are applying for a place outside of the borough. Parents will be asked to apply online or by completing Ealing’s common application form, listing up to six schools in order of preference before the deadline of Saturday 15 January 2011.

All London boroughs will then use a computerised system to share the details of school applications in other areas and co-ordinate the offer of places to make sure that no one is offered more than one place. There will be a single, London-wide offer day on 4 April 2011 when parents across the capital will be sent the outcome of their application.

Previously London boroughs did not co-ordinate their offers or their offer dates with each other, meaning that parents could be in receipt of more than one offer, only one of which they intended to accept.

Parents would sometimes hold on to offers until they had heard from all of the boroughs they had applied to, leading to a delay in offering surplus places to other children. And sometimes parents did not inform the council that they had taken up another offer until the start of the school term.

The new system is fairer because boroughs will have an accurate picture of the allocation of places meaning that more children should have a chance of being offered one of their preferred schools.

Councillor Patricia Walker, cabinet member for Children and Young People said: “I am really pleased to see this system being used for primary school admissions this year. It is no secret that boroughs across London are experiencing a squeeze on primary places and Ealing is no exception.

“We want to use every means at our disposal to ensure that as many children as possible are offered a place at one of their preferred schools and this system should help us to do that.

“I would like to remind all parents of the need to apply for their child’s primary place before the deadline of 15 January 2011, even if they are already in the nursery class or have an older sibling at their preferred school.

“Everyone who applied for a place before the deadline last year was offered a place at an Ealing school and 96% were offered a place at one of their preferred schools.”

To meet the rising demand for primary school places in the borough, Ealing Council has funded 16 permanent additional forms of entry and nine temporary additional forms of entry in primary schools since 2008.

Information packs and application forms are available from your preferred school or by contacting Ealing’s school admissions service on 020 8825 5511. Parents can apply online at www.eadmissions.org.uk.